Remember that your US MKI Focus is a decade old design that was originally totally designed by FoE, I was able to drive a EU MKI Focus from new and I can tell you that the German assembled 2002 model that I drove was very well made and had very tight fit lines....The quality was really second to none as the German ADAC consistantly gave the EU Focus MKI top ratings in quality and reliability.
The US MKI Focus did not have so fortunate a life, as when it debuted here it was drastically altered from the EU model in order to make it cheaper..so quality durability, and reliability suffered greatly compared to the almost identical looking EU model...On top of that the Mexican factory was not a very modern plant so uniformity and consistancy was not high on the list...Our ZX3 was not the best made although luckily the EU handling and controls did make it here.
The current US Focus is a fuglified version of the MKI that was almost totally restyled in Dearborn MI....It is no doubt that in order to make this car as cheap as possible tolerances and such were relegated to the bottom of Fords list...
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